Coca Cola‘s name is no stranger to social media innovation and pioneering.
This iconic brand was one of the first success stories of the web 2.0 marketing and it is still going strong – 33,853,560 (and counting) Facebook Fans – 354,936 (and counting) Twitter Followers!

The latest endeavor by Coke is the Coca Cola Freestyle campaign, and it’s looking like a stroke of genius crossover marketing!

The core of the campaign is a Facebook app that lets users mix and create their own drinks our of a variety of flavors provided. Sounds fun? Well that’s not the best part! Users are encouraged to visit locations where Coca Cola Freestyle vending machines are installed! Those machines allow users to actually create the drinks that they put together on Facebook and drink them in real life! There’s also a game designed for iPhone and Android in case you feel like enjoying the Coke freestyle experience with you on the go: “Coca-Cola Freestyle® PUSH! + Play: a memory game that highlights the 100+ drink choices in Coca-Cola Freestyle® in a fun way, set to musical patterns”

The Facebook app and page both direct users to Freestyle vending machines across the United States (so far) and lets them ask for one in their own cities (inside the U.S.A only). There are now about 1,500 such machines in restaurants like Wendy’s and Burger King.

But According to Mashable: “Coke plans to make more noise about Freestyle next year. The company is working with ad agency Ogilvy & Mather on a 2012 ad campaign for Freestyle, according to Advertising Age. Coke would like the apps to eventually generate a 2-D barcode, which could be scanned at one of the machines to create a blend, according to Ad Age.”

Now that’s what I call 360 Degrees marketing! Covering online, offline and making users flock to selling points to try out their new creations… Let’s break down the elements of the Coca Cola Freestyle campaign:

It doesn’t get better than this people! Coca Cola has done it again with, in my opinion, a 5-Star social media campaign! And the numbers agree; This activation was launched on Wednesday August 24, 2011 and has accumulated, as of Friday August 26, almost 40,000 fans on Facebook and a bit over 2,150 Twitter followers!

In 2 days only, the numbers above are any digital marketer’s dream! What do we learn from the above? I say the lesson is SIMPLICITY, VISUAL APPEAL and FUN are still the winning mix when it comes to online activations!
I wonder what they will come up with next…